(This review may contain spoilers).
It took me a little while to get to see this movie, but having seen it today, I’m glad I managed to before it went out of cinemas.
While I wouldn’t have said this movie was terrible unique, it was really entertaining to watch. I enjoyed seeing Miguel interacting with his family and I thought the way his family history was told at the beginning worked really well.
There wasn’t a lot of interaction between Miguel’s family and the rest of the people in the town, so it was difficult to see how their refusal to allow music into their lives was viewed by everyone around them.
It was good to see that Miguel had such a strong passion for music and I found it really easy to empathise with him and his desire to follow his dream. I would say that his parents didn’t really seem to have much depth to them, or even to really interact with him; certainly not as much as his grandmother and great-grandmother.
I would have liked a bit more detail about the spirit guides and how they worked, as it seemed that only certain souls had them…and it was also amusing how those guides seemed to fit in with the personalities of their souls.
There was quite a bit of humour in this movie and I really liked the underlying themes of family. The land of the dead really stood out in comparison to the land of the living, but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the souls who were completely forgotten about. It seemed that ‘final death’ would be inevitable for any soul.
This movie engaged me really well and I was completely absorbed in watching it. While I wouldn’t rush to buy it on DVD, it’s a film I wouldn’t mind watching again in the future.
Ink of Blood 